Catching up- the new job.

So to be honest, I'm not sure even where to begin...

Let's start with right after I accepted my job offer.

Right after I accepted the position I had my first block off, so I got to do some quick planning for my first class. In case you are wondering my college uses a block system for their traditional students. Basically they have one class at a time for 18 days for three hours each day. Then a few days black break and onto the next course. It's an odd system, but works well for us. though I still haven't mastered the three hour course in terms of boredom, but I'm learning...

Because my chair (for non-academics this is my boss) is very kind, he's allowing me to work from home the majority of the time. That means except for days and times I need to be there, I typically work at my own desk. This has been great as we've been able to hire a babysitter for the girls when I'm gone or working and not send them to daycare. I love leaving them with someone who loves them and can pays lots of attention to them. It's the next best thing to me being home with them.

In addition to traditional students, I also teach night courses for non-traditional students. These courses meet one night a week for six weeks. I've taught two and loved it! I have to say I find non-traditional students refreshing. They are highly motivated and enjoyable to teach because they ask lots of questions.

I really love that I get to be home so much, having so much time with my girls is irreplaceable. However, it has proven to be difficult to manage everything. Because of short prep time and the large amount of work involved in teaching (if you don't understand me, then I'm guessing you've never taught), I've been more than a bit stressed. The good news, before my next two blocks of teaching we'll be employing a housekeeper to help with my work load. I'm excited and a bit nervous. Truth be told, I never ever thought I would hire someone to clean my house. All my life I thought that was something reserved only for the rich. But with the savings from going to my insurance, we can pay for the housekeeper (with extra leftover) and not make any difference to our budget.

Now for the ultimate question, why even take a job? Truth be told, I'd love to be a stay at home mom. Reality though is tough... As a academic I have to stay in the game (so to speak). Once you are gone for awhile, it's extremely hard to get a job. I left research knowing the door probably wouldn't open for me to enter another research lab again. The information just moves so fast... For teaching it is similar though not as absolute. So when the girls enter school, I had always planned to go back full time. My plan was to teach adjunct until a position opened for full time faculty and then apply. It's just the job opened before I thought it would. In our area there are not many colleges that I could apply to, so this was just an opportunity that couldn't be missed.

I'm glad it did present itself. Financially, it's allowed Mark and I to give more and pay off extra on our mortgage. Win-win! Now I just need to get into a better time management system and all will be perfect.

Cheers!

It's time to catch up!

So I've been gone for what seems like forever. But I can tell you it's for good reason, lots to do and very little time.

But I do want to catch everyone up with what we've been doing. So look for several posts about the last three months coming very soon.

Cheers!